Only ever played a boogie, my first non mesa amp?

[joe187]

Hey y'all

Ive had several Boogie amps, and will always own a Boogie. However I am interested in knowing what the alternatives sound like. I am conidering buying a new combo. I would like a multi channel very flexible amp. I have a band mate who is very high on Bad Cat, and a bunch of people have said that Bad Cat is the new Matchless. What about a Shiva?

Let me know what you think. I appreciate everybody's help.

Joe

 

[Mesa Boooogie]

Shiva's rule. I used to have one and it was the perfect humbucker amp. Great Marshall vibe on channel two but channel one was the most pleasant surprise of all. The magic that exist between a nice strat and a nice Fender amp exists between a Les Paul and the Shiva's first channel. Just a really great sounding amp from head to toe.

Can't say much about the Bad Cat as I've only played one in a store relatively quietly. Sounded terrible at that volume, which some amps do and some don't. I would suggest you look in Dr Z amps because those are great. Not very expensive for a handwired job either. Depends what sounds your after though.

 

[Boogafunk]

i have never tried a shiva, but i can tell you that the bad cat amps are probably the opposite of a multichannel very versatile amp. they are more of a stripped down "pure" tone kind of amps. a lot of guys who use them just use their guitar's volume pot to get the range of sounds they need. they can be used for a variety of styles but they won't switch between them like you're used to on your roadster or your rocktron setup.

 

[RR]

i have never tried a shiva, but i can tell you that the bad cat amps are probably the opposite of a multichannel very versatile amp. they are more of a stripped down "pure" tone kind of amps. a lot of guys who use them just use their guitar's volume pot to get the range of sounds they need. they can be used for a variety of styles but they won't switch between them like you're used to on your roadster or your rocktron setup.

That's exactly what I think of Bad Cats Amps. Awesome.

 

[joe187]

Hey

I ended up getting a Bad Cat Hot Cat 30R head and 2x12 Bad Cat open back cab. It is a very interesting contrast to the Roadster. I see exactly what you guys meant - its a tone monster, just ungodly tone, although somewhat of a one trick pony. But its one killer trick. You do get very pronounced differences in tone by changing the volume and/or pick attack. It will be my "studio" amp - in other words sit in my bedroom, with the Roadster being way better for gigs. But I'll tell you ripping out SRV tone or EVH is fantastic with this amp. I love it.

I bought this without ever trying out a Shiva or anything else. I found a guy on craigslist selling it, went therre, and bam I was hooked. Easy decision.

Thanks for your help guys.

Joe

 

[RR]

Boogies are versatile, probably most versatile guitar tube amps out there. But the trade-offs, they're not specialize 'tone' like other boutique amps. But then again, they weren't to specialize one tone.

I know something like the Road King could record one extreme tone to another and no one knows its the same amp.

Besides the Bad Cat could go from a 'clean warm tone' to 'milkshake' thick drive, its going from a clean to distortion just by the rolling-off the guitar volume. You can't do that as well with Boogies.

Please, this is not a knock toward Boogies because there is so much things Boogies could do that a Black Cat can't like all-out scoup out the mid Metal tones.

Two different amps, different preference.